Money Buzz! Europa

Category: Technology

  • Mercurius closes a second-round investment reaching 800K in raised capital

    Mercurius closes a second-round investment reaching 800K in raised capital

    Sports-betting and data technology start-up Mercurius is delighted to announce it has achieved its target of raising €500,000 in second-round funding from industry investors.

    The Milan-based company has now raised a total of €800,000 from two funding rounds and will use the money raised to enhance and develop its sports-trading product and further expand the team.

    Mercurius was founded in 2017 by Fabrizio Machella, the CEO, Lorenzo Malanga who performs the role of Head of Data Science and Mario Ciardulli who is the company’s Chief Marketing Officer.

    Machella said he was excited by the level of interest the business generated in its latest funding round.

    “We have a very thrilling idea for the future of sports trading and we are very pleased that our investors agree that we are on the right path,” he said.

    “They are backing our vision of building a product that will exploit the increasing similarities between the worlds of gambling on sports and trading financial instruments. Our whole proposition is based on the idea that sports betting will become ever more trading- and exchange-based thanks to the evolution of data analysis and predictive technology.”

    Mercurius wants to get sports-betting into finance

    The money from the second round of funding will help develop Mercurius’ idea of moving sports-betting towards being regarded as a new type of alternative asset class.

    Specifically, a pilot will be set up with investment firm Digital Value which will create a financial vehicle for sophisticated investors to take advantage of Mercurius’ AI-based data technology.

    “We plan to increase the number of competitions we can analyse and the types of bets we can effectively cover alongside being able to model workable hedging strategies,” added Machella.

  • Instant Factoring closes a € 500,000 pre-Series A capital raising round

    Instant Factoring closes a € 500,000 pre-Series A capital raising round

    Instant Factoring, the first Romanian start-up offering online factoring to small entrepreneurs, closes a pre-Series A capital investment round amounting to 500,000 euros from investors with rich international experience.

    “The capital attracted in this round will contribute to the consolidation of our position on the local market by extending the portfolio of clients among micro-enterprises and small companies in Romania, and will be invested in the development of the online factoring platform, and of the strategic branding and digital marketing activities”, stated Cristian Ionescu, CEO & President, Instant Factoring.

    This is Instant Factoring’s first round of private equity financing, in addition to the initial capital subscribed in 2018 by the founders with a total value of EUR 500,000. Thus, the total capital investment from the founders and new shareholders reaches the value of 1 million euros.

    The new investment in Instant Factoring comes from internationally renowned entrepreneurs and investors – Mr Xenofon Vodorouglou, Mr Constantin Goulimis, and EDUCATIVA, a group of social enterprises with a focus in the education field.

    Also, in the fall of 2018, Instant Factoring attracted a working capital financing of 1.5 million euros from an American social impact investment fund, a loan destined to conduct the factoring financing operations and to purchase the invoices portfolios of the companies.

    “The small companies in Romania are facing an acute lack of liquidity in the current activity, a necessity they cannot cover from other sources, and the online factoring offered by Instant Factoring is the quick and handy solution for any of them, through which they can avoid a financial bottleneck and access the much-needed capital for business development”, continues Cristian Ionescu.

    Instant Factoring supports the development of small companies, with a turnover of up to 2 million euros, providing them with online financing solutions – factoring. The technological platform allows the analysis of the financing invoice within 2 hours for invoices up to 10.000 lei and 24 hours for those up to 250.000 lei, and within a maximum of 24 hours, the client receives the money in their account, for both cases.

  • SAM the robot will register the Medicover subscribers

    Connections, a digital transformation company in Romania, with offices in Bulgaria, Serbia and Asia – has created the first robot for Medicover, capable of automatically managing the contracts and benefits of the subscribers and insurers of the medical group.

    The SAM robot (Subscriptions Assistant Manager), created on the basis of RPA technology developed by the UiPath unicorn, can register new subscribers, change existing benefits in a subscription plan, add dependents (children or relatives) to the subscriber’s benefit plan or can conclude contracts.

    „The SAM robot meets an increasing need to register new subscribers and update existing contracts. The automation will significantly reduce the processing time, also ensuring the quality of the records with zero errors” states Delia Iliasa, National Director of Medicover Clinics and Commercial Director, Medicover Romania,.

    For a Medicover subscriber, the benefits are related to the fact that he/she can access medical services quasi-instantaneously after signing the contract, and for any subscriber who becomes a Medicover patient, which means he/she needs a consult or investigation, the related benefit plan can be quickly consulted and the patient is guided in order to get the best solution.

    „SAM was created one month ago, and the trial period lasted another month, because there were several exceptions that the robot had to deal with separately, which significantly increased the complexity of the process”, explains Bogdan Florea, founder of Connections and ANIS Vice President.

  • Techcelerator announces the opening of the applications

    Techcelerator opens application for the fourth acceleration batch for tech and digital startups. They can register by November 6, 2019. Approximately 10 selected startups can receive 50,000 euros each, in exchange for a stake in the company, followed by convertible note/s by the end of the program according to progress made, worth another 25-50,000 euros.

    The financing is provided by the strategic partner, GapMinder Venture Partners BV, co-financed through the Competitiveness Operational Program 2014-2020.

    Techcelerator targets companies in the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) or in Beta testing phase. The vision regarding the commercialization on the global market, the quality of the team and the feasibility of the product will get higher scores.

    The focus will be on fields such as FinTech, cyber security, MedTech, digital transformation solutions, including applications in the blockchain, business process automation, artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) areas. The program accepts applications from any vertical should the founders prove their product potential.

    “Starting with this edition, the acceleration program aims at closely working together with local business angels who can recommend projects in the acceleration phase or who are interested in co-investing in this round, together with the accelerator and the VC fund. We target projects that have proven that they can attract, together with the founders’ team, a valuable network of advisors involved in reaching the first signs of traction of the developed technology”, said Cristian Dascălu, GapMinder VC Partner and Co-Founder of Techcelerator.

    The fourth batch will start on December 5th, 2019 and will end mid June 2020, taking place both in Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, with the support of corporate partner companies and approximately 60 Romanian and foreign mentors and business angels.

    Startups from the fourth round of Techcelerator  will benefit of intensive business coaching sessions, mentoring, specific know-how depending on the startup industry and marketing services. Also, startups will have access to international communities for growth and exposure in the global market.

    At the end of the acceleration program, the attending startups will publicly present their businesses during a Demo Day event, thus being able to attract additional funds from other investors.

    “We are increasingly demanding. The program has grown, we have gained experience in evaluating the potential of the products and the founders. The value of the investment has also increased since the third round, from 25,000 euros to 50,000 euros, with the possibility of accessing new rounds of up to 200,000 euros from the venture capital fund, GapMinder Venture Capital. We have gathered around the program a number of renowned partners who complement the services of the program and increase its relevance. And this trend will continue”, says Cristina Țoncu, Manager of the Techcelerator program.

    27 startups have completed the first three rounds of acceleration provided by Techcelerator, benefiting from a total investment of € 1.35 million from the venture capital fund GapMinder Venture Partners.

  • Kuka Home embarks on digitalization journey with Lectra

    To maintain its leading position in China’s fastgrowing furniture market, Kuka Home turned to Lectra for digital transformation of its design, development and production processes.

    Digitalization allows Kuka to virtually design and develop a significant part of its products, and evaluate prototype feasibility and product quality in the early stages of product development. With an automated leather cutting process, Kuka achieves consistently high quality cut pieces without relying on operator skills, optimizes leather consumption and boosts efficiency.

    Lectra proposed a smart manufacturing process incorporating DesignConcept, its virtual prototyping and product development solution, and Versalis, the automated leather cutting solution. Lectra also provided its professional services, based on 30 years of expertise, to ensure the success and continuous improvement of Kuka’s production process.

    Kuka reached out to Lectra in its pursuit to put digital technology at the heart of its operations. “In the last few years we have been in discussions with many equipment manufacturers and carried out various trials. Lectra was more mature and more aligned with our current business model,” explains Mr. Pan Chaoping, Lean Production and Planning Management Director.

    Implementing digitalized processes also enables Kuka to resolve a challenge experienced by many companies in the industry.

    “As labor costs have spiraled, we are looking to increase the cost competitiveness of our furniture and increase manufacturing efficiency,” says Mr. Chaoping.

    Kuka Home in over 2500 stores around the world

    Founded in 1982 by Mr. Gu Yuhua, Kuka Home has become one of the biggest furniture manufacturers and brands in China. The company supplies a wide range of products, including leather and fabric sofas, upholstered beds and mattresses to over 2,500 branded stores. It also exports its products to over 120 countries and regions.